Competition ZENITH

NATION Union Agriculture Minister launched PGS-India, Soil Health Card and FQCS Web Portals i. Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on 15 July 2015 launched 3 web portals viz. Soil Health Card portal, Fertiliser Quality Control System (FQCS) portal and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) – India portal. - Soil Health Card Portal: The portal has been developed for registration of soil samples, recording test results of soil samples and generation of Soil Health Card (SHC) along with fertilizer recommendations. - Fertilizer Quality Control System Portal (FQCS): This FQCS is a web based and configurable workflow application developed by NIC for processing of sample collection, testing and generation of analysis reports. - Participatory Guarantee System – India Portal: Participatory Guarantee System is a process of certifying organic products which ensures agriculture production process in accordance with the standards laid down for organic products and that ...

NATION PM Modi launches Skill India mission at Delhi i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 1500cr ambitious Skill India mission aimed at giving vocational training youth in the country to meet "manpower needs of the world." ii. The event saw a large turnout of Union ministers including finance minister Arun Jaitley and defence minister Manohar Parrikar as well as chief ministers. Foreign dignitaries and senior industry leaders were among the invitees. Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela began in Maharsahtra i. The festival, known as largest peaceful gathering in the world, began with the traditional ceremony of hoisting of flags and thousands of people taking a holy dip in Kushawart and Ramkund in Godavari River in Nashik and Trimbakeshwar. ii. The ceremony at Trimbakeshwar was presided over by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and state Women and Child Welfare minister Pankaja Munde as chief guests, while Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis p...

NATION India stands second on trust in national government: survey i. India has secured second position amongst 40 countries in a survey of trust in national governments for 2014 conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Switzerland has emerged at the top with Norway coming in third. ii. An impressive 73 per cent of Indians polled in the survey answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Do you have confidence in the national government?’ INTERNATIONAL India, Kyrgyzstan inked 4 agreements to strengthen bilateral relations i. The agreements were inked during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan from 11 July to 12 July 2015. ii. List of Agreements/MOUs signed Agreement on Defence Cooperation Memorandum of Mutual Understanding and Cooperation in the field of Elections MoU between Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Agreement on Cooperation in Culture Capital - Bishkek ...

NATION ISRO successfully launched five British satellites into space i. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 10 July 2015 successfully launched five British satellites into space from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan  Space Centre, Sriharikotta. This was the heaviest commercial luggage carried by a PSLV rocket to date. ii. These all satellites, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and weighing 1440-kg, were launched aboard the 13th flight (PSLV-C28) of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).  iii. These satellites are three identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites and two auxiliary satellites, viz., CBNT-1 and De-OrbitSail. Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) launched by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam i. Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on 9 July 2015 launched the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) in New Delhi.  ii. The abhiyan aims to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and love for Science an...

BRICS SUMMIT 7th BRICS Summit held in Ufa, Russia Theme - "BRICS Partnership – a Powerful Factor of Global Development" . i. The summit was attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dilma Rousseff, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Jacob Zuma president of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa respectively. ii. Major Happenings at UFA "Contingent Reserve Arrangement" The central banks of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) on 7 July 2015 signed Mutual Assistance Agreement (MAA) aimed at operationalising the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) of 100 billion US dollars. Its purpose is to provide mutual support (monetary funds in US dollars) in the event that national financial systems encounter dollar liquidity problems. Total committed resources of the CRA are 100 billion US dollars, with individual commitments- China (41 billion), Brazil (18 billion), Russia (18 billion), India (18 billion) and South Afric...

Nation Tata Group to sign 3 MoU's with Tripura government  i. A delegation of Tata executives led by its Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata will sign three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a government official has said. ii. Chief Secretary Y P Singh said an MoU would be signed with the department of Industries and Commerce for providing higher technological know-how to two Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in West Tripura district and Dhalai district. iii. The second MOU would be signed for setting up a dairy farm at Ambassa in Dhalai district and another MoU would be signed for augmenting fish production in the state, he said. India overtakes US as 3rd largest steel producer  i. India has overtaken the U..S to become the third-largest steel producer in the world with a production of 14.56 million tonnes (MT) in first two months of the year. ii. Data compiled by World Steel Association (WSA) showed that the country's production growth was the highest during the Ja...

Nation Adani Group to set up 650 MW solar power plant in TN i. The Adani group on Saturday entered into an agreement with Tamil Nadu government to set up a nearly 650 MW solar power park at Ramanathapuram-Kamudhi belt with an estimated investment of Rs 4,536 crore. ii. This is considered to be the world’s largest solar park at one place, a state government statement, quoting Rajesh Adani, managing director, Adani Enterprises, said here. Agartala to be India’s 3rd int’l internet gateway i. Agartala is set to become the third international internet gateway in the country after Mumbai and Chennai. ii. Union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will launch the India-Bangladesh bandwidth connectivity programme in Agartala on July 10. C-DOT to launch broadband products like solar-powered Wi-Fi  i. C-DOT, the research and development institute of the department of telecommunications, will next week launch four broadband products developed to fast forward ...